General SRB2 Questions:

Generally, it’s easiest to use the launcher or the console, but use whatever method is the easiest for you.

How do I use the console?

You can pull down the console by pressing the key in the top left of your keyboard (`). As for the individual commands, you can type HELP to see a list, or view the listing on the Wiki.

How do you join a netgame?

There are four methods to join a netgame:

a. Go to Multiplayer, and click on the “Join Game (Search)” option, set to ”Internet”. Any games hosted on the master server will be shown on a list. Select the one you want to join and hit enter, and it will attempt to join.

b. Go to Multiplayer, and click on the “Join Game (Specify IP)” option. Type in the IP address of the player you want to join. To find out the IP address, go to the master server website, or type “LISTSERV” into the SRB2 console. You can also get it from the person hosting, if they know it.

c. You can type “CONNECT ” into the console. You get the IP address in the same way.

d. You can also find games hosted on a master server using Oogaland’s Master server launcher.

Why can’t I see anyone online in SRB2?

The first thing you will need to check is your version number. Use the console and type VERSION. If your version number is 2.0.4, then congratulations, you are completely updated. If you have 2.0.1, 2.0.2, or 2.0.3 then download the 2.0.4 patch found on the download section of SRB2.org. If you have an even older version like 1.09.4, then go to srb2.org and download SRB2 v2.0.1 from the download section. When it is done extracting the files, you can either use the srb2 updater, or the 2.0.4 patch. The second thing you need to do enter the following line into the console:

masterserver ms.srb2.org:28900

You then should be able to connect to the master server with no problems.

How do you host your own netgame?

To host a netgame, go to Multiplayer, and click on “Host Server”. To host a public netgame on the master server, turn “Advertise on Internet” on. Set a server name, gametype, and select a stage to start on, and click “Start”. If you have a router and nobody can join your game, it’s likely you need to forward ports on your router. SRB2 requires port number 5029 (UDP) to be open for your game to show up in SRB2 and the MS Launcher. In order to fix this, you need to forward the ports to the computer you are hosting from. This resource can help you in this process.

If you have a firewall and nobody can join your game, you’ll likely need to whitelist SRB2 so it can access the internet.

Some antivirus and antispyware checkers (Pest Patrol is a good example) see a program that uses encryption of any type and get paranoid when they can’t tell what exactly is encrypted (if anything), and will treat it like a trojan, regardless of whether it is or not. SRB2 is not. So tell your virus checker to ignore any SRB2 files in the future and you won’t have any more problems. Also, you may have heard rumors of a “supervirus” in SRB2. This is a hoax; for one, you can only encounter the “supervirus” in the modified EXE SRB2JTE, and for another, it doesn’t actually do anything.

Where can I find more information about SRB2?

The SRB2 Wiki is a great resource for finding anything related to SRB2, including level information, tutorials, and so on.

c. I am making a character WAD and see “R_InstallSpriteLump: Bad frame charactersin lump EMERA0″. What do I do?

First, make sure your lumps are arranged correctly. Icons come first, then OBJCTCFG, then S_SKIN, then your sprites. The S_SKIN lump MUST be the lump right before your character sprites. Second, make sure there are no blank values and typos in your S_SKIN and OBJCTCFG lumps.

How do I convert my 1.09.4 levels to 2.0?

SRB2 2.0 comes with a converter which will convert your maps for you. There are certain things that it will not convert, like SOCs and level headers, so you may need to double check your level to see what you need to fix. The converter supplied with SRB2 runs in the DOS command prompt. For information on how to run command prompt, look here. Once you have the command prompt running, you are going to need to change to the folder where SRB2 is kept. For example If your folder is C:\Games\SRB2 then you should write “CD c:\Games\SRB2″ without the quotes. Once you done that, you can find help on the level converter by simply typing “lvlconv” without the quotes.

What sort of things are different from 1.09.4 maps and 2.0 maps?

Star posts are set up completely different from the 1.09.4 version. Instead of using flags to determine what order they go in, it is determined by Angle. This allows Star Posts to use the object flip flag, and one can place more of them. The way they are set up is like this: Multiple angles of 360 determine the order of the Star Posts. The first Star Post would be between 0 and 359, the second Star Post would be between 360 to 719 and so on.

When you place a thing spike, it does not hurt the player when you touch it. This was done because the thing to thing collision was buggy. For the thing spike to hurt you, you need to put an invisible, tangible FOF with spike damage on the area where the thing spikes are placed.

Where can I get the SRB2 source code?

The source code is located in a self-extracting RAR called SRB2Src.exe, which is included with SRB2 and placed in your SRB2 directory.